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Thursday, 25 November 2010

All Sales is a stage and one salesperson in their time plays many parts - Selling Styles

The rise of Selling 2.0 has meant that the use of communication media offered by the Internet such as email, social networking, twitter, conferencing and the like provides many more communication possibilities to the salesperson.

Yet beneath this ‘makeover’ of communication choices that selling has undergone, deep down the anatomy of professional salespeople has not changed much.

Google's home page logo recently reminded us that some 115 years ago a new kind of ray ( the X ray) was discovered by Wilhelm Rontgen. He produced the first X ray photograph of part of the human body - his wife's hand.

So let's study the 'anatomy '21st Century salesperson with a quasi X ray analysis and study the various parts.

Salespeople combine many roles and satisfy many needs. To understand your full responsibility you need to look at your job and from three different perspectives.

• Your customers’ perspective• Your company’s• Your own

The Customers’ perspective:

To be fully effective in opening, building, maintaining and servicing an account there are four different roles as a customer will expect to see demonstrated. Selling style is often a balance between building relationships and obtaining commitments from customers.

1. Overseer Part: ( Passive and reactive sales style likely to be low on building commitment and low on building relationships) This profile is likely to be expressed by beingEfficientWell OrganisedKeeps promisesUtilises resources

2. Diplomat Part: ( a more ‘political’ sales style high on building relationships but lower on getting commitment) This aspect is likely to be seen in action by a salesperson who

develops relationshipsactive listenertrustworthycredible3. Promoter Part ( Proactive sales style high on obtaining commitments low on building relationships) This style is likely to express skills in a salesperson who is

persuasiveconfidentable to motivatebuilds commitmentbelieves in their offer

The Professional Sales Consultant Part (4) is able to blend the Overseer, Promoter and Diplomat roles where they are best suited. You will need to spend most of your time in a sales consultant role as trusted advisor, need satisfier and problem solver.

There will be times when you need to use the other parts to carry out a particular role of the total sales function. The true professional has the sensitivity and flexibility to be able to utilise the right part at the right time for the right person.

But remember that you must always aim to move back into the full sales consultant role as soon as one of the others has served its purpose.

Your Company’s viewpoint:

If your customers are happy then your manager is likely to be happy also. But there are other roles you need to complete your responsibility to your own organisation:

These are if you like the aspects of the role which could be described as being a Professional Business Manager. There are three further parts to consider here.

Planner PartOrganises:The development of territory and accountsStrategy in PlaceGoals Task Prioritisation

( Slide of First choice ( out of top 5) of what buyers like in salespeople with whom they do business- from 2010 Buyers' Views of salespeople Click for free summary of the TACK Buyers' Views Research 2010 research.)The final part of the jigsaw skeleton has to be your role as a responsible Self Manager. Your personal success depends largely on your own efforts. To ensure success you will need to be a:

Hard Worker PartEffort and abilityGoal focusedHonestSelf directed

Optimist PartPositiveEnthusiasticExpect successRelish challenges

Realist PartAssessReviewDo right tasksEliminate Weakness

The intermixing of the 'parts'- Hard worker, Optimist and Realist can be summed up as having the right mental attitude to the job of selling.

What the above shows is that to keep the complex and wonderful 'machine' that is your sales anatomy in good working order you need to keep it fit for purpose and revitalised.

You might find this link useful from to help you keep your sales anatomy in good working order.

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About Me

I have been a training consultant for 30 years.
I also research Buyers Views of Sales people for an ongoing research study I have done for the last twelve years
The majority of photographs, videos and audios in this blog are taken on my new Fujifilm Fine pix T from May 2012 The Pencil Sketches are mine also